A friend recently told me about a character on Parks and Recreation who keeps a poster of a plate of breakfast over his desk. I never had much interest in this show before, but when I found out it had a character this awesome, I decided to give it a watch.

You have good taste in wall hangings, Ron Swanson.

I, too, love breakfast. I would hang this poster in my office any day, though the constant visual of larger-than-life bacon might become distracting. Breakfast wins the best-meal competition for a number of reasons:

1. It actually is the most important meal of the day.The Mayo Clinic says so. But that’s not very interesting, so I will move on.

2. All of the best foods fall under the potential-breakfast umbrella. Bacon. Waffles. Cheese (in eggs). Steak (with eggs). Bagels (with cream cheese). Breakfast pizza. Cold regular pizza. I could go on, but you get the point.

3. All of the best drinks fall under the potential-breakfast umbrella. Coffee. Mimosas. Water.

4. It’s so literal. Breakfast is the only meal name that actually sounds like what it means. You are breaking your overnight fast. Lunch? Dinner? These words mean nothing to me.

5. On the weekends, it becomes brunch. What “brunch” lacks in literal-ness, it makes up for with unlimited-ness. All-you-can-eat brunch buffets. Brunch with all-you-can-drink mimosas. Or, most commonly, brunch with all-you-can-drink coffee. At the very least, brunch tends to be a more elaborate meal that combines more of the best foods I mentioned in point #2.

6. You can go sweet or you can go savory. Breakfast (and its weekend alter-ego, brunch) is the only meal for which it’s socially acceptable to eat dessert as a main course. I don’t recommend this, nor do I do it frequently, but sometimes you just need a sugar-saturated meal to complement your morning caffeine jolt. If you’re pressed for time, a bowl of Reese’s Puffs should do the trick. Otherwise, you can make something truly amazing, like this champagne-dipped Challah French toast stuffed with mascarpone, chocolate, and banana. I have been drooling over this recipe all week and can’t wait to try it.

Eating the Beats knows what's up.

I’m sorry, lunch and dinner. You do own exclusive rights to BLTs, seafood, and beer, but if I had to choose one meal to eat three times a day for the rest of my life, it would be breakfast. I’d be a little jittery from all that coffee, but it would totally be worth it.